Tuesday, 29 June 2010

old lady

in window lightsmiling into the fire- yet looking away

______gw2010

When we want to value the worth of a society we give a deal of thought to how it looks after its vulnerable people. In some countries it is sadly almost the norm that old ladies are forced to sell their houses in order to finance the care they will need in the sunset of their lives.

Many of today's elderly women, those in Britain for example, farmed the land and fed the nation or did dangerous work in munitions factories during World War II. Others saw their husbands and children sacrificed to the fray. These women did their bit, as the saying goes. And so, if only for this, they deserve better in old age.

Today, in order to bring the world's financial markets into some semblance of order, we are being informed that we must devalue, amongst other things, old people's only source of income - fixed pensions. But in reality this is going to be done to give the corrupt and the criminal a bit more breathing space.

The world's G-clubs (8, 20, 16, 23 or whatever - the actual G-number matters not) get together on a semi-regular basis for champagne and sandwiches, at our expense, and they do so in some choice locations: Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Italy etc..

It's costing the rest of us a pretty fortune.

Some leaders, like President Obama, know in their hearts that it's high time that expenses-fiddling politicans, ultra-greedy investment bankers and all the other debased and dangerous disciples to greed lounging in the shadows like insatiable crocodiles were made to tighten their gucci belts.

There must always be a glimmer of hope on the horizon!

Notwithstanding all or any of the above, it's high time that old ladies in their dotage were given, at last, a decent break. They deserve it.

2 comments:

Agree with every word Gwilym. As an almost 'old lady' myself I consider myself fortunate in so many ways (a younger husband (much), a work-related teacher's pension, - but I know plenty of old ladies who fit into the category you are talking about. There is so much unfair in the world.

You save up all your life, play the rules, and then at the end they take it all off you. Meanwhile the tricksters can do what they want almost with impunity, and not only that get paid vast sums for doing it. It can't be right, surely it's not.

By the way, the haiku poem owese something to Hardy. I'm trying to do what you did with R S Thomas, so I'm playing around with odd words and phrases to get me moving around inside Hardy's world as it were. seeing things as he would see them.